Just over a dozen years ago a group of women from the slums of Embu, having nowhere else to turn, called on the Good Shepherd Sisters of Kenya. These women were the victims of particularly oppressive cultural practices and sexual discrimination.

The Angola miracle is a description economists sometimes give to the impressive recovery the country has witnessed since 2002 when warring factions finally put down their weapons, ending a 27-year civil war.

The damage from devastating floods that crippled Bangkok in June, 2011 is still being tallied. Thousands of residents are still homeless or living in makeshift temporary shelter, and many others have had to start over from scratch.